Isaiah 64:4 Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
There is always a tension between the active and the passive in faith it seems. Much of the Bible gives instructions for people to live out, like the Ten Commandments for example. God seems to want people to be active in pursuing such things. But the overall story of the Bible is about what God does for us, how God acts and we passively receive God’s goodness and kindness and grace. In the Old Testament the big stories are of the Exodus and, later, the return from captivity in Babylon. In these, God “acts on behalf of those who wait for him.” And then, when the time was just right, God acts by sending Jesus. In many ways we are in the current of history that is powered and channeled by God. We ride these currents in our world and also in our individual lives. Advent is a time to focus on what God is doing on both these levels this year based on what God did in the past. What is God creating, what is God moving, in and around you that indicates that he still “acts on behalf of those who wait for him?”
Logan Memorial Presbyterian Church 